Best Laid Plans
by Sarah1281
Summary: The day before the expedition that is to kill Trian and get Reidin exiled, Reidin falls in his duel with Mandar Dace. Looks like Bhelen's going to have to quickly recalculate if he still wants to have Trian killed the next day...


Best Laid Plans

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

If there was one thing Prince Bhelen Aeducan could say about his brothers it was that they both thoroughly deserved what was coming to them. Trian, of course, felt the need to act as if Reidin and their father were the only ones worthy of his notice – and his paranoia regarding Reidin was rather tiring at times – while Bhelen was a mere child. As for Reidin…Reidin's feigned lack of interest in ruling and his clear status as the favorite could get annoying but Bhelen had _never_ been as furious with his second-eldest brother as he was right now.

"I am sorry, your highness," Ronus said, sounding torn between glee at having hurt House Aeducan so and fear of the palace's reprisal. Bhelen made a mental note to have both Ronus and his son Mandar killed at some point for upsetting his plans so.

It wasn't like he was upset about _what_ had happened, aside from the fact that it made House Aeducan look foolish, but the timing couldn't have been worse and now he'd have to rearrange everything. Sure, his plan was still workable and could even still be implemented the next day but it would never be as perfect as the original plan was.

Reidin was a fool. While it was true that in the past Bhelen had often wondered about his brother's judgment in matters like choosing to completely ignore Trian's animosity towards him or to sleep with anything that moved while chasing after Adal Helmi, he had always been unable to completely believe that the brother that everybody loved and who they wanted to rule Orzammar could be such a fool. He was mistaken.

Reidin was dead. As Bhelen had long-since plotted the death of not just Reidin but Trian as well, that was hardly something to mourn. In fact, the fact that Mandar Dace had struck the final blow meant that he actually wasn't involved and thus could not possibly be connected to the murder. While he knew that his original plan would not be able to be traced back to him, the fact that both men who were ahead of him in line for the throne would be taken out of the picture in one move might cast suspicion back on him. It _was_ a risk he was willing to take but now he wouldn't have to. On the one hand, the lack of suspicion was certainly a good thing. On the other…well, now he'd need a new way to explain Trian's impending demise.

"Thank you, Ronus," his father said perfunctorily. It was clear that watching his favorite son die had taken its toll on him but thus far he was still keeping it together. Bhelen did feel a little pity for his father but it was supposed to be much worse: his father was _supposed_ to have been the one to order Reidin's death himself.

Looking awkward, Lord Dace quickly took his leave.

"Poor Reidin," Trian murmured, sounding entirely unconvincing. "And right before his first commission, too…" Bhelen wondered whether anyone actually believed that Trian was in any way sorry to Reidin go. After all, Trian had never made much of a secret of his animosity towards their brother brought on by jealousy and Reidin's general devil-may-care demeanor. No doubt Trian was busy convincing himself that he was extremely upset by it while also secretly reveling in the fact that he was right to look down on Reidin. Given that Trian had _just _agreed to confront their brother and kill him if he refused to surrender, Bhelen could hardly take any proclamation of sadness coming from his remaining sibling's corner seriously. It wasn't even like it had been that hard to convince him either…

But alas, all of that was all for naught. On the day before Reidin's big day and Bhelen's plans came to fruition, Lord Dace had apparently tried to trick Reidin into costing House Aeducan a lot of money by supporting letting the Surface dwarves retain their caste as there were several surface dwarves in particular with Aeducan blood and debts to House Dace to be paid. Instead of just pretending he didn't know the truth and declaring that the Surface dwarves should remain casteless like anyone else would do, Reidin had decided to challenge House Dace's honor.

Lord Harrowmont, ever cautious but this time rightly so, had cautioned against it and Bhelen could see him now trying desperately to look like he hadn't seen this coming the minute Reidin said he was going to go through with it anyway. Reidin _was_ normally a better fighter than Mandar Dace but something had happened and the prince had lost the fight. More than that, he had lost his life. Bhelen would have preferred to have been there to see it, but Trian's resentment over all of the special treatment Reidin was getting and Bhelen's own plans to convince Trian that fratricide was a viable option kept him out of the loop until the fight was over.

It was all well and good for Trian to be willing to kill their brother but him already being dead made it a tad unnecessary. Bhelen hadn't even gotten the chance to approach Reidin with the idea of killing Trian. He didn't think Reidin would have been difficult to convince but in case he was mistaken and Reidin really _didn't_ want to kill their eldest brother – which he was honestly having trouble trying to understand how that could be possible – then he had a backup plan involving having the casteless mercenaries he'd given Trian's ring to kill Trian before attacking Reidin right before he reached the shield to make him even more suspicious of Trian.

He was supposed to be in contact with them later tonight to let them know if they were to kill Trian or not so he could arrange for them to have a new plan now. Ambushing Reidin would be highly unnecessary, of course, given that he was no longer amongst the living. Fortunately, Duncan and his fellow Wardens still needed access to the Deep Roads and the expedition had already been all planned out so it was still taking place the next day so at least some part of his plan was salvageable. He would still be accompanying his father with the main part of the expedition while Trian still went off alone with his men. Bhelen could have the casteless mercenaries follow Trian and kill him and his men while they were by themselves.

The problem with that, of course, was that now there was no Reidin to pin the crime on – or have actually do it – and no clear motive. Usually when a prince died, the throne was in some way involved and while that was also the case here, Bhelen didn't want that to be known. If no one ever found any evidence of what happened, just a dead prince and his dead guards then they'd either be forced to conclude it was darkspawn or, if the bodies lacked the usual tells of a darkspawn murder, that bandits had done it.

While Bhelen might have been reasonably well-known around Dust Town, Reidin and Trian weren't. Reidin, of course, as their father had felt the need to shelter him to an almost unreasonable degree and Trian because he honestly believed that they were nothing and thus below his notice. It would be all too easy for the rest of Orzammar to believe that casteless had seen dwarves moving on their own and had killed and robbed them without realizing exactly who they had gone after. He would just need to instruct the mercenaries he'd hired to take anything of value on his brother and his men which they would be only too eager to do.

If the mercenaries _were_ caught then Orzammar would believe the same thing…as long as they didn't attempt to bring him into it. There was, to his knowledge, absolutely no proof linking him to the murder about to take place save perhaps a few letters to Beraht – and now Jarvia since Beraht had died the week before in some carta squabble involving Rica's sister – that those that had access to would never reveal to save a few expendable mercenaries. With any luck, the mercenaries would realize just how much more painful their deaths would be if they tried to blame what had happened on him. Once again, there would be no proof but he _really_ didn't need the suspicion.

It occurred to him that it was, perhaps, a little strange that while his father was mourning Reidin and Trian was pretending to and perhaps even deluding himself that he was, he was frustrated that Reidin had died an Aeducan a few days early and thus forcing him to rapidly recalculate. All things considered, it wasn't so surprising although he would need to pretend to be upset about first Reidin's death and then Trian's when it came for propriety's sake.

He was a little curious why part of his annoyance was at the fact that Reidin's death, while foolish and unnecessary, allowed him to stay an Aeducan instead of the murdering exile Bhelen would have preferred him to die, even discounting the fact that it would have made his plan easier. He supposed there wasn't much point wondering about things like that now that one brother was down and the other would soon follow.

"Poor Reidin," Bhelen said, shaking his head sadly. "Tomorrow was going to be such a big day for him…"

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